LABOUR last night claimed it was making good progress on waiting lists despite figures showing one in 10 people in Wales are still on such a list.

The monthly breakdown has shown some significant falls but outpatient lists are still almost 50% higher than four years ago when the National Assembly took over control of the Welsh health service.

There are now 216,545 people waiting for their first out-patient appointment and inpatient lists revealed there are 74,590 waiting for an operation.

The figures have driven home Labour's missed 1999 election pledges that no one should wait more than 18 months for inpatient treatment or six months for an appointment with a consultant.

Waiting list figures for the end of March show 70,120 people are waiting more than six months for out-patient treat-ment and 5,240 are waiting more than 18 months for in-patient treatment, a rise of 228 (4.5%) on February's data.

There have been falls in waiting list figures - the total number waiting for in-patient or day case treatment is down 1,553 to 74,590 and the numbers waiting for a first out-patient appointment fell 8,125 to 216,545.

There have also been significant falls in the areas specifically targeted by Welsh health minister Jane Hutt.